Twelve15 Design Studio: Studio Reveal

Hey, friends! IT . IS . FINALLY . HERE! The design studio is ready to make its debut right here! So, let’s start from the beginning a bit, shall we? When LeStavion and I did our walkthrough of our house I remember seeing this room and thinking “this will make the perfect studio!” It has tons of natural light with super huge (8’x4’) east and south facing windows, and it’s right off the entry and foyer, making it great for for client visits, and hosting painting events. The room, well, our whole house really, has tall ceilings between 11 and 12 feet, so naturally this makes any space feel much more grand. I knew I deserved a space that met all the technical requirements listed above, but I also knew I deserved a space that would easily welcome and encourage my creativity. Let’s take a peek at what the space looked like before.

Studio before (Attempts to make it workable)

So, yeah… as you can see I made an attempt or two to make the space work for me, but it was severely lacking order, storage and function, and it just never really felt right. Mind you, at this time I was still working full time with the engineering firm and traveling, so getting it, or most other spaces in our house, exactly how I wanted was low priority.

When I made the decision to refresh this space there were a number of design decisions I knew for sure, and other things I was okay with figuring out along the way. I knew that I wanted I the space to have elements of contrast, from colors, to materials, etc. I also knew that the walls were going to be painted black, and that I needed some sort of window treatments to add a level of softness, light-filtering, and balance.

Oh, yeah… one thing I forgot to mention is that LeStavion and I share the space, and by share I mean he has an area for his desk where he can work and game. It’s actually quite perfect for him. Naturally, he knew that this would mostly be my space to do with it what I wanted. Great! So like I said, I wanted black walls and decided to paint both the wall that my desk faces and the wall that LeStavion’s desk faces black. After throwing up a couple of paint samples, we landed on Limousine Leather by Behr The LRV was perfect, and it was just the depth of black that this room needed. After moving my peg board and behind-the-door storage around, I patched up holes and got to painting.

It was at this point in the image above where I knew that I needed not only paint the walls black, but also paint the French doors and trim in the same color black. And that’s exactly what I did!.

GAME . CHANGER! I am so so glad I followed through on painting the doors and trim! I didn’t worry too much about fixing errors from whoever did the previous paint job, but definitely could have sanded and smoothed out a few areas, but I digress.

In terms of furniture, there were pieces I already had that were staying in the space, those included my Ikea kitchen island from my last apartment, as that thing was literally my “studio space” when I lived there and my desk, which I had already hacked to be an L-shaped desk. When we moved to our house I decided to put casters on the island so that I could move it around as needed, especially since our floors are nowhere near level, and would need to find a level spot considering I work with fluid paint. This island not only provides great storage, but is a durable work surface that can take a beating!

Alright, so I previously mentioned that I needed everything to have a place and to be organized, and that included nooks and crannies like my desk drawer, cabinets, etc. Desk organization went swimmingly.

I also needed storage for my canvases. I purchase various canvases frequently and in large batches, so I needed to be able to see what sizes I had, and when it was time to stock up! I’m a big fan of photo storage boxes and used them to store smaller supplies like pens, markers, washi tapes, note cards, sticker letters, etc. I used my Dymo label maker to label each box and stored those boxes as well as magazine holders, paper holders and larger storage boxes in a few Ikea BESTÅ frame and shelf units, the same ones as my canvas storage.

I knew that I wanted to keep costs relatively low with this refresh, so most of my furniture was purchased from or repurposed Ikea pieces. Of course, I did some DIY and added drawer and door pulls that I spray painted, just so that it didn’t look too much like “flat box furniture.” I use this Malm 3-shelf dresser as storage for my materials, paint swatches, fabric swatches, etc.

This space got just the right refresh. I feel like I can be extra creative in here, and also like I can make a mess when making art pieces, without worrying about having to be too careful. My studio was designed to be flexible, with the ability to function simultaneously as an interior design studio as well as an art studio. I am in love with it and am so glad everything finally has a place and feels more like me!

Alright, friends! That’s it! Let me know your thoughts on the refreshed digs!

Until next time,